Headline

First impressions will dominate regardless of how often it is contradicted by new experiences

Stop Selling Software

People don’t buy Software – they buy Solutions to Problems

Billy:

Feature: Bluetooth

Benefit: Music/Phone Calls

Valued End State: Self-Esteem

Mom:

Feature: Bluetooth

Benefit: Music/Phone Calls

Valued End State: Peace of Mind (she’ll be able to call Billy at any time)

you need to talk to the following two people:

just purchased your product

just stopped using your product

“Products find a certain market only when they help their customers get done the jobs that they have already been trying to do.” – Clayton Christensen
Job of the Milkshake: Make the long commute easier

People don’t Buy Software

They buy ways to overcome pain

They are outsourcing processes

They choose to allow other people to build things they need

They don’t prescribe to the “Not invented here” syndrome

[MISSING]

Iterating on Your Sales Pitch

Make the pitch all about what is important to them

Don’t be afraid to invoke fear or shame (“Would you like to help kids with cancer?”)

Be a sexist: Invoke the shame in the women (it works better than with men)

Do A/B testing

Enterprise Tactics

Ask if they have a Budget and how big it is

Ask for Authority (Who makes the decision? Ask to speak to that person!)

Ask for Need (Why would you like to do that?)

Ask for Timeline (How long will the purchase process take? Is there a deadline?)

Use Market Data (Example: After 6 months there are 10 pounds of human hair in your carpet)

Internet Explorer

URL, Image or CSS Cache in Microsoft Internet Explorer is always a hack. Having the Right Keyboard short-cut helps you significantly.
Not only that you save time, but also the Cache is deleted instantly.

Uploading one or many files is pretty straight forward and easy to do:

Create a new Article

Click on the “Add Media” Button

Drag several Files, up to 20 is recommended, into the uploading window

Wait until the Upload is completed

Insert the Files into the WordPress-Post

Is it possible to alter these Images in size later? Yes you can resize them, but it does not re-calculate the image again. This means that the image might look fuzzy and not smooth at all. Therefor, reinserting or even reuploading is suggested.

The App is fast, intuitive and designed very nicely. Christian Ruepp suggested me to use this app, and i could not resist but doing that.
Even better is that Thomas Castel is giving it away for free today.

Get it here for Free today: Task App on Itunes for iPhone, iPad and iPod

When I was heading up Marketing at RunKeeper, I took my first stab at PR by playing the volume game. I hammered out one canned pitch email after another. The result? A pathetic 7% response rate on a good week. So I tested a new game. First, I actually read reporters’ articles before I reached out. I went for real connections and quality over quantity. Then I worked hard to make my press releases easy for them to read. I cut out the jargon. (Sometimes longer is better, but always be efficient with your words. Trust me, no one likes the sound of your voice as much as you do. Nix.) I also polished the style. I used section headers, bullets and selective underlining or italics to tell the story.

The results?

My newly crafted notes sung with a genuine interest in the reporters’ work, immediately driving the response rate up to 37%. Which reminds me of a story: I was on Quora when it was cool to be on Quora, back when it was still just a bunch of self-important bleeding-edge hipsters. And you know what? Ramit Sethi liked my answers so much, he picked up the phone to see if I wanted to geek out over marketing analytics together. It’s pretty simple—choose your words wisely, and people will like you (or at least, listen to you).

The Takeaway: Keep it real. Get to the point. Highlight the good stuff.

Sarah Hodges is the Co-Founder of Intelligent.ly, a learning campus that connects experts with professionals who want to hone their skills. While previously at RunKeeper, she drove coverage in The New York Times, Tech Crunch, Gigaom and Mashable.